Football for 23 January 2019

If you're a serious punter, then you will need to keep track of all the latest live football scores. Nearly all major bookies offer some facility where you can bet on live football games.

Here at SBAT we bring you live soccer scores – all day, every day. We cover the major European leagues – the Premiership, La Liga, Seria A and the Bundesliga. We also cover football scores from continental and international competitions such as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, plus FIFA World Cup matches and International Friendlies.

Not only do we do we provide live score updates, we go a step further than Sky Sports and the BBC by providing information on line-ups and head to head stats. For the major leagues we provide detailed match previews and head to head data. In the freshly released SBAT app, you can track in-play incidents such as corners and cards to help you make the best betting decisions.

On top of live football scores – refreshed every few seconds - we provide live text commentary for key fixtures. SBAT is your one stop shop for football insights, so be sure to check back for today’s football results!

Premiership Live Scores

The EPL is probably – along with La Liga and Serie A – one of the three most popular football leagues in the world. Millions of pounds are bet each year on Premier League live scores throughout the season, which runs from August through to May.

The oldest league competition in the world can trace its roots all the way back to 1888 when representatives from twelve northern and midland teams in England met and decided to form 'The Football League'. The top tier of English league football has been running ever since, although in 1992 the top twenty-two teams in the football league broke away to form the FA Premier League.

The FA ditched the concept of league sponsorship in 2016 and branded the top league in England the 'English Premier League', or the EPL for short. For many years now the EPL has been dominated by some of the richest clubs in Europe – Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City being the main dominating forces, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur challenging the status quo on an annual basis.

Despite this dominance the odd upset still occurs – the greatest being the severely un-fancied Leicester City winning the EPL title in 2015-16 by ten clear points. Leicester had never even come close to the title before, and had been quoted at 5,000/1 to win the title at the season's start.

EPL teams can always be found qualifying for the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League, and EPL clubs have won the Champions League four times – Manchester United in 1999 and 2008, Liverpool in 2005 and Chelsea in 2012. For a while top flight English teams dominated the Champions League's predecessor – the European Cup. Between 1977 and 1982 English sides won the competition six years in succession.

Many of the world's top players can be found racing around the pitch wearing the shirts of the top sides in England. Sergio 'Kun' Aguero is a prolific striker for Manchester City and Argentina and vies with Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez of Chile for the title of the EPL's leading forward player. Spain's top goalkeeper David De Gea is regarded as one of the best – if not THE best goalkeeper in the world, while Manchester City fans are lucky to see the midfield wizardry and sharp-shooting skills of Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne on a regular basis.

Thanks to TV coverage English Premier League matches are enjoyed by millions of excited viewers from all over the world. You can follow all the EPL live scores here at SBAT.

La Liga Live Scores

Many consider Spain's La Liga to be the biggest, best and most exciting league in world football. It certainly attracts all the biggest footballing stars in the world, such as Leo Messi (Argentina), Neymar (Brazil) and Luis Suarez (Uruguay) at Barcelona, and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Gareth Bale (Wales) at Real Madrid. It could also be argued that Barcelona verses Real Madrid is the biggest footballing derby in the world. Millions of soccer sports betting fans follow La Liga live scores each and every week.

La Liga (now sponsored by Santander) is Spain's 'Primera División' and has been since its inception in 1929. The idea came from José María Acha, who was a director at the club Arenas Club de Getxo. Ten of the best football clubs from around Spain – including both Barcelona and Real Madrid - were either selected or qualified to form the league's top division. Despite Barcelona's initial win in 1929, and Real Madrid's wins in 1932 and 1933, the early dominant team were Athletic Bilbao, who won four out of the first seven titles. By coincidence, those three teams are the only three that have never been relegated from Spain's top flight.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have utterly dominated La Liga right from its inception. Real Madrid have taken the title a record thirty-two times, with Barcelona winning twenty-four. The only other teams to have won La Liga are Atlético Madrid (ten times), Athletic Bilbao (8), Valencia (6), Real Sociedad (2), Deportivo La Coruña (1), Sevilla (1) and Real Betis (1).

Real Madrid have also dominated Europe's top competition – the UEFA European Champions League (or the European Champions' Cup as it was formerly known). 'Los Blancos' won the trophy for the first five years of its existence from 1956 until 1960, plus on another six occasions on top of that. Barcelona are the only other side to win Europe's top title (six times), although Atlético Madrid (three times) and Valencia (twice) have both played in the final.

Matches from La Liga are broadcast to every football-loving nation in the world, and millions of fans can watch the undisputed talents of Ronaldo and Messi week-in, week-out. You can follow all the latest La Liga live scores right here at SBAT.

Serie A Live Scores

To say that Italians are passionate about their football is like saying Italy is quite famous for pizza and pasta. Football is simply just a way of life for the majority of Italians, and Italy can boast many of the biggest clubs and brightest footballing stars in the world. Italian football is largely dominated by three footballing giants – Juventus and the two Milan clubs Internazionale or 'Inter Milan' and Milan or 'AC Milan'. Millions of euros, pounds and dollars exchange hands every year via betting on Italy's top league – Serie A – and hundreds of thousands of supporters follow Serie A live scores each and every week.

Now sponsored by TIM (Telecom Italia), Serie A is the top professional football league in Italy, and has been since its official inception in 1929. A previous 'challenge tournament' had existed since 1898 (in the first ever Italian football tournament, all the games were played at the same venue in the same day), but 1929 was the year of the first 'round robin' tournament.

The first season of the 'true' Serie A was 1929-30, and Internazionale won the first Serie A title. Juventus then cemented their initial claim to be recognised as Italy's premier team, winning each of the next five titles. Juventus have gone on to win the title a record thirty-two times, with both Milan and Internazionale winning Serie A eighteen times each.

Internazionale and Milan are somewhat unique in world football as they share the same stadium – the 80,000 capacity San Siro. The two league matches every year between these two Milan giants are regarded as the biggest derby games in world football, aside from perhaps Real Madrid verses Barcelona in Spain's La Liga.

Despite Juventus's dominance of Serie A, it was Milan whom first blossomed on the European stage, winning the UEFA European Cup in 1963. Milan have gone on to win the top European prize seven times – the second-most successful UEFA European Cup/Champions League team in history behind Real Madrid. Internazionale first won the trophy in 1964 and then 1965. They completed their hat-trick of wins in 2010, jumping ahead of Juventus who have only won it twice – in 1985 and 1996. Italian sides Fiorentina, Roma and Sampdoria have all reached the final, but all were beaten.

Millions of global football fans are just as passionate about Italian football as the Italians themselves, and you can follow all the latest Serie A live football scores right here at SBAT.

Bundesliga Live Scores

Now one of the biggest leagues in world football, the Bundesliga is the most recent addition to the collection of leading European leagues, having been created as recently as 1963. The top German league is now home to some of Europe's biggest clubs, notably true European giants such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Betting on the Bundesliga ('Federal League') is big business across all major sports books, and many thousands of punters keep a keen eye on Bundesliga live football scores each and every weekend.

Prior to 1963, the majority of football in Germany was played at an amateur or semi-professional level in regional leagues, however, a surprise 1-0 defeat of the West German national side by Yugoslavia spurred the German footballing authorities on to consider creating a national, professional German league. Forty-six clubs applied for inclusion, but only sixteen were selected.

The first title was won by 1. FC Köln, but then seven different teams won the first seven titles. However, from 1968 onwards two sides – Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach – began to dominate the league. Although Mönchengladbach haven't won the title since 1977, Bayern have continued to dominate, winning twenty-five titles since 1969, which is twenty more than any other side.

Bayern Munich are not only considered the current best side in German football (they've won the Bundesliga every year since 2013), they are also considered by many to be the current best side in European football. They certainly have many of the best talents in world soccer, including France's Franck Ribéry, Spain's Xavi Alonso, Holland's Arjen Robben, Poland's free-scoring striker Robert Lewandowski and home-grown talents Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Jérôme Boateng. Fittingly Bayern have won the UEFA European Cup/Champions League more times than any other German club, with victories in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2001 and 2013. The only other Bundesliga sides to win Europe's most prestigious trophy are Hamburg (in 1983) and Borussia Dortmund (in 1997).

The Bundesliga is the most-attended football league in world football, with average attendances of over 43,000. Only the NFL is a better attended league in world sports, and vast crowds gather for games at the biggest stadiums in Germany, such as the Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich, capacity 75,000) and the Signal Iduna Park or Westfalenstadion (Borussia Dortmund, capacity 81,360).

As one of Europe's biggest soccer leagues, many thousands of punters gamble on the Bundesliga on a daily basis, and you can follow all the latest Bundesliga live scores here at SBAT.

Champions League Live Scores

Whether you agree with it or not, modern-day football is first and foremost a money-making venture, and there is no football competition on earth that can match the UEFA European Champions League as a finely-tuned money-making machine. An engrossed TV audience watches every round of the Champions League each year, and hundreds of thousands of sports bettors eagerly watch the live Champions League scores, hoping that their fancied teams will be victorious.

This is all a far cry from when the tournament commenced, way back in 1955. The brain-child of journalist Gabriel Hanot, the 'UEFA European Champions Cup' invited championship-winning sides from all over Europe to compete in a straight knock-out competition. Sixteen sides from the top European countries (not including England – the FA already 'knew' that English teams were the best in Europe and didn't see the point of such a competition) competed, and Spain's Real Madrid beat France's Stade de Reims 4-3 in the final at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

Madrid went on to win the next four titles as well, most notably with a 7-3 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 which is regarded as one of the greatest football victories of all time. Real Madrid hold the record for the most wins in Europe's top trophy with eleven victories.

In 1991 UEFA began the idea of 'rebranding' the then ailing European Cup into a much broader competition. The result was the UEFA European Champions League. Previously, only champions from UEFA-member countries were invited to take part in the tournament, but this was expanded to allow runners-up and even teams finishing third and fourth in their domestic leagues to enter. As opposed to the sixteen teams that took part in the first European Cup, seventy-eight teams now enter the competition at the season's start. Some teams are now faced with competing in twenty-one games if they wish to lift the trophy at season's end.

Teams from ten different countries have won the European Cup or Champions League, with Spain (Real Madrid & Barcelona), Italy (Milan, Internazionale and Juventus) and England (Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea & Aston Villa) leading the way. A few unexpected teams have made it all the way to the final, including Greece's Panathinaikos in 1971, and Sweden's Malmö in 1979.

As well as huge revenues from TV broadcasting rights and advertising, the UEFA Champions League attracts sports betting fans like no other competition, and you can follow all the very latest Champions League live scores right here at SBAT.

Europa League Live Scores

Although very much classed as the 'secondary' European domestic clubs competition, tons of cash changes hands each year as people place wagers on the UEFA Europa League. Eager punters follow the latest UEFA Europa League live scores to see which of Europe's 'not quite' top clubs will take home the continent’s second-most important trophy.

The forerunner of the Europa League was the UEFA Cup, but the forerunner of that was a very strange competition indeed – the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. This tournament began in 1955, and the first competition took three years to complete. The competition was created to promote international trade fairs, and any city with such a fair could qualify. The first tournament was won (eventually) in 1958 by Barcelona (a combined team of Barcelona and Espanyol) who beat London (Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham, Leyton Orient and West Ham) 8-2 over two legs.

UEFA took over this long-winded tournament in 1971 and made it a competition for teams who had finished high up in their domestic league but not as champions. This was run in tandem with the European Cup Winners Cup, which was a tournament for domestic cup winners.

In 1999 the Cup Winners Cup was merged with the UEFA Cup, then in 2009 the competition was expanded to create the UEFA Europa League. Each year now one hundred and sixty teams compete to see which of them will be crowned the UEFA Europa League champions.

Spain's Sevilla are the most successful club in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, winning the title in 2006, 2007 and then a hat-trick of titles between 2014 and 2016. Three sides have won the title three times – Juventus (Italy), Internazionale (Italy) and Liverpool (England), while eight teams have won it twice, including England's Tottenham Hotspur (in 1972 and 1984) and Portugal's Porto (in 2003 and 2011).

The UEFA Cup has not been without its controversies. In 1984 Anderlecht defeated Nottingham Forest 3-0 at home in the semi-final after losing the first leg 2-0. The vital 3-0 victory was aided by a laughably soft penalty and the chalking off of a legitimate Forest goal. It later emerged that Anderlecht had 'loaned' Spanish referee Emilio Guruceta Muro £27,000 before the match.

Despite falling attendances, the UEFA Europa League remains a lucrative cash cow for UEFA and participating clubs. Sports betting fans and general footie fans can follow the latest UEFA Europa League news here on SBAT, as we keep you updated on the latest Europa League live football scores.